Francine Prose biography

Francine Prose

Francine Prose Biography

Francine Prose is the author of several novels, non-fiction books, and short story collections. She is a Visiting Professor of Literature at Bard College, and was formerly president of PEN American Center, a New York City-based literary society of writers, editors and translators that works to advance literature, defend free expression, and foster international literary fellowship.

She received the PEN Translation Prize in 1988 and received a Guggenheim fellowship in 1991. Prose's novel The Glorious Ones has been adapted into a musical with the same title. Her more recent works include My New American Life (2011), The Turning (2012) and Lovers at the Chameleon Club (2014).

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Interview

An interview with Francine Prose

You open your novel A Changed Man with a character most of your
readers probably have never met: the ex-skinhead Vincent Nolan. Was this
"changed man" the inspiration for the book?I certainly began with him. I was on the subway in New York once, and I saw
these two very young skinheads -- all dressed up, with jackboots and shaved
heads -- and I noticed that they looked terrified, like they'd been dropped from
Mars. It was very clear to me that they were out of their element; this was not
their home territory at all. That made me curious about who they were and what
kind of people they were. Then I began to do research.

It's strange how life imitates art. Later I was in an elevator in Manhattan,
and there was a middle-aged guy with his hair growing over tattoos on his head
-- it looked as if a swastika had been there, and the laser removal hadn't done
a good job. I thought this is my character, 10 years later.

Were there other topics you were keeping in mind as you wrote?
My aim was to write about this character, but I wasn't necessarily writing
about neo-Nazis. I was writing about what it means to be a good person, what it
means to change -- and how our culture ...

Readalikes

All the books below are recommended as readalikes for Francine Prose but some maybe more relevant to you than others depending on which books by the author you have read and enjoyed. So look for the suggested read-alikes by title linked on the right.
How we choose readalikes

Christopher Buckley was born in New York City in 1952 and graduated cum laude from Yale University in 1976. He shipped out in the Merchant Marine and at age 24 became managing editor of Esquire magazine. At age 29, he became ...
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Alan Furst was born and raised on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. An only child with older parents, he wandered alone or with friends around New York and learned to love the city and its people. He attended Oberlin College,...
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